Coach Gary van Egmond revealed the real reason behind his decision to bench the talented 20-year-old  in recent rounds, insisting it had nothing to do with his on-field contribution.

Goodwin proved key to the Jets promising start to the season and scored two goals – including the winner against Sydney FC – prompting some to question his omission from the starting line-up.

But van Egmond told au.fourfourtwo.com the player had hit a brick wall in the round six clash against Western Sydney Wanderers.

Goodwin was subbed off during the Jets’ 2-1 win at Parramatta Stadium and given leave to miss the following match against Phoenix. He hasn’t started a game since.

“He was down on a bit of confidence and he just felt a lot of pressure from outside forces, from a lot of the media that he was getting attention from,” van Egmond said.

“We actually gave him a weekend off about two or three weeks ago, so it was a really good thing, he really appreciated it and he had a couple of bumps and bruises as well.

“So it was good timing for that and it’s just a matter of him working his way back in.”

The club has been carefully managing his return to the first XI, which could come as early as Saturday with the Jets missing a host of key players to injury and suspensions ahead of the F3 derby at Hunter Stadium.

There are big raps on former Melbourne Heart player Goodwin who won man of the match honours in his A-League debut against Melbourne Victory and is widely touted as future Socceroo.

After transferring to the Jets in the off-season, he picked up where he left off - but with big performances has come the heavy weight of expectation.

“There are certain young ones who probably deal with it better than others and that’s just probably from a personality point of view,” van Egmond said.

“There are other ones that you have to be pretty careful with. It’s not the same rule for all the young ones that we have because they are all different.

“We just have to manage them from an individual point of view in regards to how they’re coping.

“Sometimes people forget when these young ones start up - in particular if boys go to the AIS or a young player goes to another state - they’re away from family for long periods of time.

“It’s not an easy thing. You’ve been in one state and then you go from that state to another state. You might have got a network of friends there and then you have to build another network of friends somewhere else.

“There’s a lot of different stresses shall we say. From outside of everyday football it looks like all roses and everything’s hunky dory but there are a lot of other different things that can occur as well.”

Meanwhile van Egmond has no concerns about the form of his marquee man Emile Heskey.

The former England international started his A-League career all guns blazing, scoring five goals in the first six rounds but has since hit a barren patch.

The fourth-placed Jets will want their star signing in top nick when they face league leaders, Central Coast Mariners at home for the second F3 derby of the season.

Graham Arnold’s men are enjoying a six-game unbeaten streak and will be out to avenge their earlier 2-1 defeat (and their only one of the season) to the Jets when Heskey scored and earned a penalty.

“(Heskey) had a couple of chances (last) weekend,” van Egmond said. “Earlier in the season they were going in and at the moment they aren’t going in.

“But if he keeps on getting in those positions, if he keeps on getting those chances, he’s going to score for sure, no problems with that whatsoever.”